"This is the goal we have been working toward for years now, and every member of our team is proud, excited, and humbled to take on the responsibility for the next game," said studio director Yanick Roy.

"To ensure a proper and effective transition, we'll continue to be supported by the Edmonton studio through the game's development, working with and learning from them on some critical initiatives."

Executive producer Casey Hudson will retain his post for the new game, but will have a product director working under him in Montreal.

While it will be "quite a while" before the game can be revealed, it will use a new engine and explore "new directions" in terms of gameplay and story.

"There is really not much I can tell you about the game right now, except that it will be built with the amazing technology of Frostbite as its foundation, enhanced by many of the systems that the Dragon Age III team has already spent a lot of time building," said Roy.

"The other thing I can tell you is that, while it will be very respectful of the heritage built over the course of the first three games, with the original trilogy now concluded and the switch over to a new engine, we are exploring new directions, both on the gameplay and story fronts.

"You can still expect the pillars the franchise is known for to be fully intact though, including diverse alien races, a huge galaxy to explore, and of course rich, cinematic storytelling."

He added: "Now that the core of our team is in place, the next step for us is to have the BioWare Montreal studio grow at an accelerated pace over the next year as we build a team large enough to support the production of what we know is going to be an amazing game in the franchise."